Huumorilla on syynsä, joita järki ei tunne.

Tänään päiväkahvilla tuli Lukutoukan ja cazfin kanssa juttua sarjakuvista. Rekisteröinpä siis rakkaat aarteeni BC:n permanent collectioniin. Lainaan niitä halukkaille.

Alkuteos L'origine, suomentanut Pieta Turkka. Julius Corentin Aqfaqista kertovan sarjan ensimmäinen osa. Postmodernisen parodisesti filosofoivaa huippusarjakuvaa Ranskasta.

Marc-Antoine Mathieu
Mathieu in English

When L'Origine was published in 1990, it garnered immediate critical praise and awards. Its story was more than compelling: it changed the very medium. Ostensibly the story of a glasses-wearing everyman ironically with an elaborate name, it featured a surreal world thought to show the influence of Kafka and Gilliam: most memorably, one sequence showed twins in a cramped apartment who routinely have to move everything to the narrow walls, pulling up the floorboards to allow an elevator to pass through the apartment, which we are told is actually one of the better arrangements available. But L'Origine was most memorable for taking the idea of incorporating the book as art object into its own narrative to the next level. Julius Corentin Acquefacques received in the post a page from the comic, seeing its title and being unable to find "origine" in the dictionary -- suggesting that his world has no origin. He then receives another package to be opened at a specific time, at which point it has accurately predicted the page on which it is opened. But another page is enclosed, one depicting a later point in which the title character experiences déja vu and remembers the present moment we are presently reading. Running across the bookstore or library in which that future page is set, Julius Corentin Acquefacques enters and the page previously seen occurs, this time as the narrative. Our hero finds there a copy of L'Origine, realizing only 12 pages remain in the narrative! He then discovers a group of quasi-scientists attempting to elaborately recreate the origin of L'Origine and who almost worship him as the center of their universe. It is at this point that L'Origine pulls its greatest coup.

As one scientist explains his theory that a three-dimensional world might exist and that a hole might be created to see into the future, we flip the page and realize that the page has a hole in it, allowing us to see a panel two pages subsequent. As we read the next page, we look back through the hole into the past, reading a panel from two pages prior. As Julius Corentin Acquefacques reacts to this panel, the scientist realizes what has happened -- the proof of his theory. At this point, another package is delivered with another page. On page 42, the last page, they read this page, page 43, on which the scientist reacts with alarm, realize that they are on page 43, the page which, on page 43, is being burned by Marc-Antoine Mathieu. Reading this page, the scientist realizes that they are on page 42, at which point the narrative ends. The reader's eye draws upward to the next page, held by the hero, on which the characters' world dies in flame. There are thus two last pages: the last page of the book, which ends abruptly, and the last page held on the last page of the book, which is burned on that same page. Thus, the story both has and doesn't have its final page.

(www.sequart.com)

*****

Lupasin kirjan Lukutoukalle lainaan; tuon maaliskuun Tampereen miittiin.

Sain lainaksi CatharinaL:n rakkaan sarjakuvakirjan. Kiitos, pidän siitä hyvää huolta. :) Sarjakuvatietämykseni on hyvin vähäistä, niin että mielenkiintoista tutustua siihenkin kirjallisuudenlajiin enemmän...

Olihan tämä vähän erikoinen (tai, kuten CatharinaL sanoisi: postmoderni;), mutta mielenkiintoinen. Ehkä minäkin olen vain piirroshahmo, kuka tietää... :)

Palautan CatharinaL:lle toukokuun tapaamisessa. :)

Minähän tämän sieltä miitistä vielä nappasin luettavakseni.

Pääidea on aika vanha ja moneen kertaan kaluttu. Toteutus ja monet pikkuideat ovat hienoja.

Nyt tämä ilmeisesti pääsee takaisin CatharinaL:n hoiviin.

Alkuperä päätyi nyt sitten vielä minun luettavakseni ennen paluuta kotihyllyyn.

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9.6.2006
Tarinaa enemmän minua viehätti itse maailma, jossa Alkuperän henkilöt elävät - huumoriministeriö, kepposvaliokunta, hissikuilussa asuvat ihmiset, sokkeloiset kirjavarastot jne. Koskaan ei oikein tiedä, mihin jostakin ruudusta voi päätyä.

Kiitoksia lainasta!

Alkuperä palasi kotiin 9.6. parvekesaunassa :-)